Sugar Loaf Chicory Seeds

Sugar Loaf chicory seeds grow like an upright, tightly headed, very large Romaine lettuce. Beneath the outer, pale-green, mild tasting leaves lies a blanched heart of sweet, pale-golden white leaves with extraordinary flavour. Sugar Loaf is perfect for late summer and fall harvests. We recommend pulling off a few of the enormous wrapper leaves and then lying the cylindrical core on its side and slicing across like a loaf of bread. Try a salad of Sugar Loaf with a hot oil dressing and croutons. Officially this endive is an escarole type. It’s an old HEIRLOOM variety that sometimes goes by its French handle, Pain de Sucre.

The chicory family includes the food plants endive and radicchio, which range in flavour from bitter to sweet. All varieties become sweeter, and lose much of their bitterness, when cooked. Try a hot oil salad dressing over endive, or a barbecued head of radicchio! Follow along with this handy How to Grow Endive and Radicchio Guide and grow food.!

We Recommend:Palla Rossa (MS491). If you are unfamiliar with radicchio, the time has come to try it! Those of us who know it love it, and look forward to the harvest time in summer and fall. Sugar Loaf (MS492) is an unusual endive that is very easy to grow, and absolutely delicious.

Season & ZoneSeason: Cool seasonExposure: Full-sunZone: 4-10

Timing Sow in April and again in early July to mid-August to take advantage of the fall growing season. Optimal soil temperature: 10-22°C (50-72°F). Seeds sprout in 2-15 days, depending on conditions. In hot weather plants will go to seed quickly, so have new plantings ready to go.

Growing Ideal pH: 6.0-6.5. Enrich soil with compost and add ¼ cup complete organic fertilizer into the soil beneath each transplant. Rapid, continuous growth is essential for good yields and high quality. Regular watering is essential. Fal lplantings can be protected from rain by putting a cloche over them. Endive heads can be blanched ro reduce bitterness by placing a cardboard or plastic disc on top. Radicchio requires a good supply of phosphorus and potassium, but will not head and may bolt if there is too much nitrogen available. Days to maturityshown are from date of direct sowing. If transplanting, subtract 10-15 days.

Harvest Use as a cut and come again crop or let the heads develop and cut at ground level. Many will grow back.

Diseases & Pests Aphids – Water can be used to remove aphids from plants. Wash the plant off with water occasionally as needed early in the day.

Moulds and rot from heavy rains can be prevented by growing under cover. Tip burn is a calcium deficiency within the plant that can be caused by an imbalance with over nutrients. Make sure you have limed the soil, do not over-fertilize and harvest just before full maturity to avoid it.